Front comments on Constitution amendments

The Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee held a conference
in Hanoi on February 19 to collect opinions from its staff and former
officials on draft amendments to the 1992 Constitution.

Participants at the conference agreed that over the past two decades,
the 1992 Constitution has proved its historical significance. However,
it should be amended to suit the country’s new situation in the context
of profound changes in the world.

They focused their comments
on issues relating to human rights, the rights of citizens, the role and
position of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), the VFF and the
Constitutional Council as well as the national defence and the upholding
of Ho Chi Minh thoughts.

According to Dr. Pham Xuan Hang,
former head of the Hanoi chapter of the VFF, the front is defined
by the Constitution as a political foundation of the people’s
administration.

However, the institutionalisation of some aspects of the VFF’s operations has failed to match its position, he said.

Hang held that the social supervision and criticism should be further
specified in the Constitution in the context that Vietnam ’s
political system is led by the only political organisation - the CPV.

Tran Dinh Phung, member of the Presidium of the VFF
Central Committee, agreed on the need to further clarify the nature and
leadership of the CPV as the vanguard of the Vietnamese working class,
working people and the whole nation.

It is necessary
to make the CPV’s leadership of the State and society clearer, he said,
affirming that the leadership of the Party is the leading decisive
factor to the success of the revolution.

The Party
must raise its political stuff, virtues and organisation capacity to
better tackle problems arising from the reality of the revolution while
preventing the risk of degradation among its members and officials,
Phung said.

He also stressed the need to institutionalise the leadership of the CPV in the amended Constitution.

Former Vice President of the VFF Central Committee Nguyen Van Hang
focused on specifying the responsibility of Party leaders and members
before the law.

Sharing views with Hang, Le Truyen,
another former Vice President of the VFF Central Committee, further
stated that there should be a law enabling the Party to operate in an
open and transparent manner.-VNA